Die sopraan sing hoog.

The soprano sings high.

Breakdown of Die sopraan sing hoog.

• hoog: high
• sing: to sing
• die sopraan: soprano singer

Questions & Answers about Die sopraan sing hoog.

What does die do in this sentence?

Die is the Afrikaans definite article, so it means the.

A useful difference from English is that Afrikaans does not change the article for gender. You use die for masculine, feminine, and also for plural nouns in most cases.

Examples:

• die man = the man
• die vrou = the woman
• die kinders = the children

So in Die sopraan sing hoog, die simply means the.

Is sopraan just the same word as English soprano?

Almost. Sopraan is the Afrikaans noun for soprano.

It is very close in meaning and comes from the same musical term, but the Afrikaans spelling is sopraan rather than soprano.

You may also see related words like:

• ’n sopraan = a soprano
• die soprane = the sopranos

Why is the verb sing the same as the dictionary form?

Because Afrikaans verbs usually do not change form in the present tense the way English verbs do.

In English:

• I sing
• she sings

In Afrikaans:

• ek sing
• sy sing
• die sopraan sing

So sing stays sing. Afrikaans has much less verb conjugation than English.